Over the weekend the Trump administration announced a proposal to make it harder for immigrants to obtain a green card or visa. The Administration seeks to broaden the inadmissibility ground relating to a “public charge.” This ground applies if the intending immigrant is deemed likely by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to receive certain public benefits once they come to the United States. These benefits include but are not limited to Medicaid, food stamps or public housing.
While the “public charge” inadmissibility concept is not new. The new proposed rule is a vast expansion of what is considered a “public charge.”
When the proposed rule is fully implemented it allows officers to deny hard working immigrants the opportunity to obtain a green card based on whether the person is likely to use public benefits. You read that right. It does not require actual use of public benefits only that an officer find that you may likely use public benefits in the future.
DHS proposes to make law the following as factors to determine whether an immigrant is a public charge: age; health; family status; assets, resources, and financial status; and education and skills. It allows an officer to say you are likely to become a public charge because you are too old or too sick.
DHS also buy with no rx proposes that it would consider an immigrant’s liabilities and information of such liabilities in a U.S. credit report and score as part of the financial status factor. This is an expansion on what was previously reviewed.
The proposal also penalizes those who have used public benefits in the past. The Trump administration says it will not create an “automatic finding” of inadmissibility due to previous public benefit use. However, application of the proposed rules as written includes previous use of benefits as a negative factor in its determination. Application of the rules as written would prevent many immigrants from securing lawful permanent residence, simply because they previously received some type of basic health care support, nutrition assistance, or other vital services. Services that they or their family members were eligible to receive!
This is another anti-immigrant policy with the goal of curtailing legal immigration. Fortunately, this proposal is not the law and we can help prevent it from becoming the law by voicing our opposition to it and pointing out its flaws through the upcoming public comment process
If you have any questions about this topic or would like a review of your immigration options, then please contact us at info@godoylawoffice.com or call us at 855-554-6369.
Immigration Attorney Mario Godoy has years of experience guiding clients with immigration issues through the immigration process along with guiding clients through the criminal case. Godoy focuses on family-based immigration law, business immigration law, removal defense, and criminal defense representation of immigrants. A criminal charge or conviction can be devastating to your immigration case. With over a decade of immigration law experience and memories of family members who were deported due to bad legal advice, Godoy is committed to helping other immigrant families receive the legal justice they deserve. As a legal entrepreneur who practices immigration law, criminal law, estate and probate law, and running two successful law firms, Mario Godoy understands the importance of keeping families together and making a home and future in America.
